France rejects Ranta’s doubts in the Racak case
The French presidency of the EU said on Tuesday it did not doubt the original report made by the OSCE in the 1999 Racak case and wondered why the Finnish forensic expert Helena Ranta has published revelations about the case almost 10 years later
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, October 29, 2008
French spokesman Eric Chevalier said the operation in Racak was directed in civilians, but he refused to comment on the nature of the operation.
He wondered why Ranta decided to publish her book on pressures by leading OSCE officials ten years after the developments in Racak.
Ranta said in her book that former OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission head William Walker had insisted that she use stronger language in regard to the role of Serb forces in Racak.
She also said that she was under pressure by the Finnish Foreign Ministry.
Ranta headed the team of Finnish pathologists who performed the autopsy on bodies in Racak on March 17, 1999. She said at the time that the victims were civilians and used the term "crime against humanity".
Racak was described as a turning point by the then German Foreign Minister Joschka Fisched and as a galvanizing development by the then US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Walker said at the time that the Racak episode was decisive for air raids on Serbia.
In the indictment of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal for ther former Yugoslavia, Racak was cited as the only crime perpetrated before the start of NATO air raids on March 24, 1999.
